Emma Sky, a Jackson Senior Fellow and the director of the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program, also will serve as the new director of the Leadership Forum for Strategic Impact.

A flagship program of the Yale Africa Initiative, and in partnership with the Fundación Mujeres por África (Women for African Foundation), the Forum is a the premier leadership development program of its kind for senior African women government officials.

Made possible through generous support from Banco Santander, each spring the Forum invites a selective group of about a dozen influential female officials from six African countries to the Yale campus in order to engage in wide-ranging discussions on governance, leadership, and economic development.  Equally important, during the one-week program, participants also interact with senior American officials and prominent Yale alumni in New York and Washington D.C.  From 2015-2017, the Forum has selected 32 participants from a total of 19 African countries.

“I am delighted that Emma Sky will collaborate with the Women for Africa Foundation to direct Yale’s next Forum for Strategic Impact,” said Pericles Lewis, Yale Vice President for Global Strategy and Deputy Provost for International Affairs. “The Forum is certain to benefit from Emma’s vision and leadership to build and support this critical network of senior African women leaders.”

“On behalf of the Women for Africa Foundation, I wish to express our great joy and satisfaction in having Emma Sky as the new director of the Leadership Forum for Strategic Impact,” said Women for Africa Foundation President María Teresa Fernández de la Vega Sanz. “Emma’s leadership, knowledge, and engagement with the women´s agenda make her an ideal candidate for this important position.”

“I am honored to take up the position of director of the Leadership Forum for Strategic Impact,” said Sky. “I look forward to building on the strong collaboration between African women, Yale, and senior American officials, and to expand the network of women committed to leading and improving institutions across the globe.”

Sky is an internationally recognized expert on Middle East politics, which she teaches to Yale undergraduate and graduate students.  She is the award-winning author of The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq, which documented her service as advisor to the Commanding General of U.S. Forces in Iraq from 2007-2010. Read her full bio

The Forum for Strategic Impact benefits greatly from an intellectual partnership among the Fundación Mujeres por África, the Yale Office of International Affairs, and the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. The previous Forum director, Brady-Johnson Professor of Grand Strategy Elizabeth Bradley, recently left Yale to become the eleventh President of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

The fourth iteration of the Forum for Strategic Impact will be held in May 2018.